Born in Hanoi, Do Minh Tam (B.1963) graduated from Hanoi Fine Arts University in 1987. Brightly coloured, Tam’s works are often abstract in nature, and feature tangled and intertwining lines. Since 1985, Tam has participated in more than 20 exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad. In 1993, he held his first solo exhibition in Hanoi and in the following year, his first solo exhibition in Australia. After the implementation of the Doi Moi policy in 1986, the diversification of artistic expressions, and abstract expressionist paintings (once thought of as degenerative), have come to characterize contemporary Vietnamese painting. Finding inspiration in the dynamically changing urban landscape of Hanoi, Tam expresses, through ‘The Red Song’ his cynicism towards economic progress which he deems to disrupt social structure and erode traditions. This painting is therefore a metaphor for the pulsating rhythm of urban life, one that is filled with hope and yet fraught with difficulties in the Vietnamese struggle for a better future.
